


Bedenke das Ende

by godtiermeme



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - I really just don't know how to explain it, Alternate Universe - War, M/M, Multi, No Titan Shifters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-30
Updated: 2013-09-09
Packaged: 2017-12-25 01:44:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/947141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godtiermeme/pseuds/godtiermeme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a small corner of the world ravaged by poverty and war, there are two groups—one, The Inner Circle, is comprised of the rich, upper class. The other group, the United Lands of the Outer Circles, is comprised of those in the lower socio-economic classes. These two groups have never gotten along well—even before the creation of named factions, they often butted heads—but, after noblemen ordered a raid on a small settlement known as Shiganshina, their strained relationship reached a volatile end. Now, a mere five years after the initial uprising, there is major concern over the outcome of this bloody conflict. Hope is rapidly fading, and all that is left is being invested into a powerful new weapon—one which can only be controlled by those with an unbreakable will—and in the powerful, fresh-from-training group, known collectively as the 104th Trainee Squad.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Volunteers

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this work is supposedly a German idiom meaning "Consider the end". However, I don't know German so, if I'm wrong, feel free to correct me with the actual way of saying that idiom. Otherwise, this story is based in a modern-ish war setting. It does away with Titans and Titan Shifting and just... I've really fucked up the whole "Titans" thing. So, this is Attack on "What-the-fuck's-a-Titan" I guess? I don't know. I can only really say that it makes more sense if you read it...
> 
> Comments and feedback are welcome and appreciated, by the way... Please?
> 
>  
> 
> ~~and why can't we just agree on one way to spell the names of these character like... is 'bertolt' even a real name? who decided on that? and who decided on 'yeager' when the most popular spelling seems to be 'jaeger' or 'jäeger' and why is it 'hange' when the most popular spelling seems to be 'hanji' why can't names be easier to consistently spell????~~

The town of Shiganshina was never really the best place to live. It was always dirty. Always smelly. Always with a reputation for poverty and crime. And, naturally, after its invasion and near-total destruction at the hands of the Noble Forces, it was deemed to be the absolute worse place to live. However, it was that very reputation which made Shiganshina the perfect location for the construction of the United Lands of the Inner Circles’ weapon testing grounds—TG1.

Here—on a barren two-by-five mile stretch of dry, cracked, lifeless earth—worked the members of the United Lands’ Engineering Corp. On the northeastern end of this infertile plot was the ramshackle, four-storey building which served as lodging for workers. To the south was the two-storey mess house and recreational centre. And, in the centre of the plot, on this particular day, stood a group of young soldiers known only as the 104th Trainee Squad.

Before this group stood something massive—something which towered above the four-storey lodging house in the northeast and, at its widest point, stretched far beyond the width of the nearby aeroplane landing strip. Something which, from the looks on many of the engineers’ faces, seemed to be massively important.

“Quiet down! Quiet down!” A red-haired woman with rectangular glasses began to speak. The quiet murmur of casual conversation rapidly faded to silence. Once all the noises and muttering had ceased, the object’s veil began to slowly rise.

And, as this veil rose, more and more of the object beneath it came into view. Glimmering steel hit the midday sun. Multicoloured wires and flashing lights slowly revealed themselves. Complex mechanical appendages—first a foot, then a knee, a shoulder, and so on—appeared where there was once a plain, white cloth. And, finally, surmounting this oddity, was an inhuman head with a pair of cameras for eyes.

“This,” the bespectacled redhead spoke before any conversation about the object could even begin., “Is our newest weapon. It’s been given some ridiculous technical name that even I can’t pronounce, so it’s being promoted under an acronym for that—the TITAN 1.0. It’s an armoured machine capable of housing one person per unit.”

“Per unit!?” someone near the rear of the audience yelled, “You mean there’s more than one of these things!?”

“Well, that’s what that way of saying it would imply, isn’t it?” the woman responded with a smirk. “Now, let me explain how this works…” She paused, reached into her pocket, and drew forth a simple controller comprised of a base and a single button. When this button was pressed, a thick metal door located directly between the machine’s shoulders slowly opened, revealing a complex-looking full-body controller. As this was interior space was exhibited, a ladder extended from the compartment; it reached downwards until it could no longer do so and automatically stopped once its base hit the ground.

Naturally, the audience reacted with a mixture of awe and shock. This seemed to please the presenter, as she allowed herself the luxury of a confident grin. “Now, we have exactly five of these suits. Due to the nature of the controls, however, we have not been able to actually test them. Therefore, we’re withholding the details of their capabilities until we’re sure that the suits actually function. We’re looking for volunteers who are willing to—”

Before the woman could even finish her sentence, five determined volunteers emerged from the crowd. Or, rather, five determined volunteers promptly trampled anyone in their way to reach the platform upon which this presentation was being given. First came the boy from before—Eren Jaeger. He was closely followed by Annie Leonhardt, a blonde whose usual facial expression gave her an air of constant boredom. A pair of boys stumbled from the crowd shortly after Annie’s emergence—the more muscular of the two was Reiner Braun, while the smaller (though still considerably muscular) was Bertholdt Hoover. And, finally, an admittedly mysterious character known only as Ymir—a girl who, like Annie, seemed to be perpetually disinterested in that which happened around her—emerged from the throng.

Such eager action drew a rather bemused but wary glance from the woman on the platform, though this hesitation lasted barely a second. “Well… Wow… You all sure are… Just… Wow. Um… I guess that concludes the presentation? The rest of the squadron is instructed to leave. Each of the volunteers is allowed to have up to two friends stay behind with them while they test these things and learn how to use them. I’m fairly certain that you all know who your friends are, so… If you’re not really friends with any of these five, please follow that guy in the overalls to the exit.”

Her statement is met with a collection of confused murmurs. Snippets of conversation could be heard from more ideal positions within the crowd. “What was that?” seemed to be the most popular comment. The second most common statement, meanwhile, happened to be about how the entire presentation was a waste of time. This low din faded, however, as the group was led away from the site and, eventually, it disappeared altogether.

And, at the point at which the commentary could no longer be heard, each of the five volunteers (as well as their companion) was led to a different part of the complex by a member of the Engineering Corp. Reiner was taken to a sequestered area situated to the north of where he and the others stood. Berthold, meanwhile, was sent to the east. Annie was sent to the west and Ymir to the south.

Eren, however, was instructed to remain where he was—alongside the bespectacled redhead. He figured that he’d be led to another area once the others had put sufficient distance between himself and them but, to his surprise, this never happened. Instead, he was greeted by the woman from the platform.

“Well,” she began, “It looks like it’s finally time to get to work. But, before we do, I should probably introduce myself…” she paused momentarily to take off the leather gloves she had been wearing; though, once they were removed, she quickly regained her conversational footing, “I’m Hanji Zoe. Leader of the Engineering Corp. I’ll be helping you work this thing and I promise I’ll do my best to make sure you and the suit don’t end up exploding.”

In reply to this comment, Eren could only muster up a confused half-smile and a simple, “Okay.”

That singular statement, however, seemed to be enough for Hanji. “Great! So, um… Well, you haven’t exactly told me your name…”

“Oh,” the teen responded absentmindedly, “Sorry… I’m Eren. And…” he paused for a moment and looked around a bit. His blue-green eyes swept across the area a few times before finally settling on the visages of his two friends (both of whom appeared to be preoccupied with some sort of friendly argument). Once he had located them, he spoke up. “My friends over there,” he jabbed a finger towards the pair to make the subject of who he was referring to transparently clear, “Are Mikasa and Armin. It should be pretty easy to tell the difference between the two… I mean… I think it is.”

“Well, yeah, I think it’d be pretty hard to get that pair confused,” Hanji snickered. “But, that’s neither here nor there. We only have three days to confirm whether or not these things actually work and to get you familiarised with the controls.”

“I—Um… Okay. So, then, what am I supposed to do?” Eren muttered.

“Yeah, about that…” The eyes behind the glasses—which, until then, had been enthusiastically scanning Eren from head to toe again and again—drifted towards the ground. Hanji’s hand immediately moved to rub the back of her neck. “I know it sounds weird, but I promise it’s for your safety. We kind of need to do a full-body medical exam. So… If you could just take off your jacket… and your shirt… and… You get the drift, right?”

Eren grew notably paler at the mentioning of this, though he rapidly recovered. “Yeah. I’ll do that. And… Um… You’re the one doing the exam?”

“Unfortunately,” Hanji muttered.

“Mhm…” The teen responded with a slow nod and, without any further questioning, began the process of removing his ridiculously layered military outfit.


	2. Disappearance

Despite the fact that Hanji promised the mechanical contraption would be up and running for testing as soon as the inspection was finished, the actual experimentation ended up being cancelled due to a storm. Eren, the other volunteers, and their companions were all sent to rest in a cramped, five-bunk bed dormitory.

Nothing of actual interest occurred during this downtime, however, and it shall, therefore, be omitted in favour of describing the following day’s activities. Such activities began with the first logical step to conducting tests to ascertain the mecha’s abilities—getting into the actual machine. Now, this particular action may sound simple enough. But, it should be noted that the only way to enter the contraption was via a considerably long ladder and that climbing such a ladder takes quite a while. Thus, it took a good ten minutes before Eren was even standing in the control centre of the behemoth machine.

Once he was there, however, the rest of the setup went smoothly. Hanji instructed him from her position on the ground and led him through the process of clambering into the control suit. She explained that all harnesses and restraints would automatically engage once the system was activated. Then, she did just that—she activated the armour.

And it is at this point—as Eren stood, strapped in place within a dangerously teetering hunk of vaguely humanoid metal—that the story picks up.

 

* * *

 

“It smells like oil and shoe polish in here,” Eren commented as he curiously regarded the HUD screen before him. “This thing’s advanced enough. Doesn’t it have an interior air freshener option or something?”

His words, relayed to Hanji via two-way radio, were met with a snort of laughter. “No, but that’s a nice thought. I’ll keep that in mind for the next set of suits. This one’s now yours, though, so I’m afraid you’ll just have to deal with the smell. And it’ll probably dissipate on its own in a few days.”

“Great…” Eren grumbled. “So… What do I do, exactly?”

“Just move like you normally would. But… um… Don’t mess around with the left arm too much…”

“Why not?”

“The left arm’s the canon. I’d rather you not waste ammo and I’d really, _really_ like for you to not accidentally kill anyone… Especially on the first run…”

Eren responded to this with a sort of ‘sounds-reasonable’ sigh. “Okay then… So…” He forced the machine’s controls to follow his movements as he took a hesitant step forward. As he did so, a loud whirring sound kicked up from behind. The system’s display offered an explanation—Stabilisers Engaged.

While this message flashed flashed across the screen, the image displayed behind it began to move. The world which was visible upon the small display shifted as the contraption stepped forward. Interestingly enough, however, Eren didn’t feel the compartment he was in shifting. Naturally, he questioned this fact. “So, if I’m moving, why isn’t the carriage or whatever the fuck you want to call it moving?”

“It rotates,” explained Hanji. “Think of it like a barrel on a pole. The pole goes through the middle and the barrel rotates to maintain its upright position. Make sense?”

“I guess so…” Eren mumbled as he moved the machine’s right arm into the camera’s view. He flexed his fingers and watched in bewildered amazement as the fingers of the armour followed suit, mirroring his own movements. “But, if you can do that, why can’t you make this thing smell nicer?”

“Smell wasn’t a priority on our list… Besides, you should be thankful that I considered the fact that the carriage would be shifting a lot. If I hadn’t come up with the rotation idea, you’d probably be smelling one thing right now—and that would be vomit.”

“Eh,” was Eren’s absentminded response. “You’re right. Thanks for that…”

“You’re welcome,” a hint of laughter was present in Hanji’s voice as she spoke, though it was quickly replaced by a more serious tone. “Now, I know I said not to mess with the left arm, but I want you to disobey me now. But, before you go and get all trigger-happy with that thing, let me explain how it works. You’ll need to activate it first…”

“ _Mhm_?”

“Just move your arm and it’ll start up…”

“Okay?” Though skeptical about this claim, Eren complied with the orders he had been given. He moved his left arm and, to his surprise, was met with another message on the HUD—Weapon Aiming Camera Activated. This text remained on the display for a few seconds; then, it gave way to a different notification—Canon Armed. “It worked?” Eren couldn’t help but state the obvious. After all, he had been certain that it wouldn’t work.

“Of course it did,” Hanji responded with a trace of personal offense. “Now, I need you to listen carefully to this. Aim the cannon at whatever you wish to fire it at—but, make sure that it isn’t near us. In fact, don’t aim it at anything. Wait, no… _Yeah!_ See that tree? The one that’s off on the horizon?”

“Yeah.”

“Aim at that.”

Eren nodded (though he knew doing so was pointless) and manipulated the cannon’s sights until they were primed upon the aforementioned tree. “Done.”

“Great. The button to fire’s on the palm of the left glove. Just press it with your thumb or whatever.”

“Got it.” Without any further discussion, Eren eagerly followed orders. The button let off an audible click as it performed whatever action it was intended to and a message flashed across the HUD—Firing Canon. This notification was rapidly replaced with a countdown.

3… 2… 1…

In the blink of an eye, the display showing the outside world changed. It switched to the view offered by the cameras mounted upon the machine’s makeshift head and, at the same time, automatically zoomed in on the area affected by the missile.

And Eren watched this action with frighteningly gleeful excitement. He watched as the round, metal projectile smashed into the earth—as it threw into the air chunks of dried, hard-packed mud and clay. He witnessed the tree he had aimed at rip free of the earth and tumble to the ground. And, perhaps most frighteningly of all, he responded to it all with a malevolent cackle. This reaction, however, was not heard by anyone on the ground. What was heard was the comment which followed—”It worked.”

“Well, I can see that much,” Hanji responded brightly. “So, it seems that you know how to use it well enough… I’m satisfied with the progress and, with all things considered, I’ll pack you and your friends up and send you back—”

At this point, the audio was interrupted by a seemingly distant and obviously panicked voice. “Master Engineer! Master Engineer!” Eren redirected the cameras until he could see Hanji and fiddled with the controls for a moment prior to zooming in on the image of an unidentified man standing before her. This man was doubled over, panting, though his voice remained loud enough for the two-way communications system to pick up on it. “We have an emergency.”

“We— What? Sorry, Eren… Um… If you could get yourself out of that thing by yourself, I’d really appreciate it. I think you can take a shortcut down by hanging onto the ladder as it descends. Just don’t stay too close to the end of it and…” the voice trailed off into nothingness, and the loud stranger promptly took the silence as his opportunity to continue his hysterical report.

“Ma’am, it seems that two units exploded…”

At this point, Eren decided that it was probably best for him to check with Hanji. He flicked a few clearly labelled switches, waited a few second for the system to power down, and tried Hanji’s suggested method of disembarking from the behemoth. (This trick proved to be a viable shortcut, as he was on the ground within only a minute and a half—a vast improvement from the ten minutes it took for him to ascend the ladder.) As he had suspected, his arrival on the ground was near-immediately met with the panicked, mostly incoherent babbling of a distressed engineering overseer.

“Which units?” Hanji eventually managed to stammer.

“Reiner and Bertholdt’s, Ma’am. The units began to emit some smoke and before we could do anything about it there was a loud bang from both of them. Smoke was everywhere, so we couldn’t exactly see what was happening but, when it cleared up, we found sizeable chunks of metal and considerable amounts of melted scrap.”

At this point, Eren couldn’t help but interrupt with a question of his own. “What about the people inside them? I mean… Are Bertholdt and Reiner okay?”

The man responded to this inquiry with a despondent groan and an apologetic glance. “Sorry, kid. They both disappeared. We assume they were blown to bits like the machines.”

“You can’t be fucking seri—”

“Eren, leave,” Hanji briskly interjected.

“What!? But—”

“I know. And I’m sorry. But you’re not part of this investigation and this isn’t something we should expose you to. Go back to the dormitory.” This response was punctuated by a reluctant sigh and another sympathetic look.

“I—” Eren began to argue his point, though he stopped himself before he could finish. He briefly considered Hanji’s point and conceded. She had a point, after all. This was a top-secret project. No one was to know of this except for those involved—and, if anyone else knew, it would jeopardise the entire United Lands’ Army’s chances of winning the war. Perhaps more importantly (to Eren, at least), it would also put his friends in danger and hinder his plans to exact revenge on the militaristic upperclass forces who ruined his life and destroyed his hometown. Having considered these facts, Eren, with a great deal of reluctance, forced forth a subservient, “Yes, ma’am.” Then, he returned to the building in which he knew Mikasa and Armin were residing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I type too fast and check too little. If you see any spelling/grammatical errors, don't hesitate to say so. Thanks for reading and, again, feel free to comment. (Really, I like comments. And feedback. They're both really good.)


	3. The Trio's Retreat & The Introduction of Levi

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, it's a wimpy chapter. Really, it's a transitioning bit. Kind of a prologue for events to come and an introduction to Levi as the temporary point-of-view character.

A loud bang, a flash of bright red and vivid orange light, and the sudden cacophony of pained cries. The destruction of the last remnants of Shiganshina. The terrifying stench of death which flew into the air at that moment. Then, darkness—suffocating, oppressive darkness.

“Eren!” A familiar voice called out to a motionless figure.

“Eren! Wake up!” Desperation creeped into the distant voice. Tears rolled down a bloodstained face before falling through the air and landing upon the a torn leather jacket.

“Eren! Eren!” A strangled whimper. A muffled sob.

Mikasa Ackerman—the girl known for her impenetrable wall of cool detachment—began to bow to the pressures of reality.

“Eren…” Her voice trailed off. She bent over the unmoving body and put her ear to its chest. Thump. Thump. Thump. Once she picked up on the steady beating of a functioning heart, she withdrew and studied the figure.

She noted that the standard military jacket which they wore was torn and battered beyond repair and removed it. She tossed it aside and looked once more at the injured figure, sighing as she instinctively reached out and straightened a bloodstained, wrinkled shirt collar. Then, she glanced about.

Her eyes scanned the horizon, and she took in the visions of burning buildings and flaming corpses—of charred, grotesquely contorted human bodies and bloodied cadavers. She thought for a moment about something she was once told—about the world and its cruelties—and reflected upon the fact that—somewhere, at that very moment—there was a group of nobles celebrating this massacre as a victorious conquest over the ignorant lower classes.

“He’s… Alive, right?”

Mikasa’s attentions were drawn away from her dark thoughts and towards the source of the statement—her childhood friend, Armin Arlert—and she nodded.

As if to confirm this, the figure on the floor let forth a pained groan.

“See?” Mikasa reassured her friend, “He’s waking up.”

“Hm.” Armin nodded in reply and folded his arms across his chest. Then, he knelt beside his semi-conscious friend and began to inspect his wounds. He ripped fabric from a shirt he had salvaged a few minutes prior and fashioned each strip into either a bandage or tourniquet. Then, as carefully as he could, he began to bandage the wounds. Once he had completed this task, he stood up. Unconsciously, he rubbed his hands on his pants legs to wipe away some of the blood. “So… Where do we go now?”

“I don’t know,” Mikasa responded honestly, “But we’re not staying here.” With this said (and before Armin could respond otherwise), she grabbed Eren and stumbled to her feet. Then, while still supporting his weight, she took hold of the back of Armin’s jacket and dragged him with her as she fled from the fiery scene of chaos.

It is in this fashion—with one teen slumped lifelessly over her shoulder and another being dragged behind—that Mikasa continued for an indeterminate amount of time. And it was only after she had passed a certain point—the point at which the panicked cries and crackling flames of the massacred base could no longer be heard—that she stopped and sought refuge beneath a natural canopy of weeping willows. There, in the shade of those drooping trees, she finally allowed herself the luxury which was sleep.

 

* * *

 

And at is at this point, dear readers, that we should defer from the trio’s narrative to inspect the that of a particular individual who—through a series of unpredictable events—would end up becoming an intrinsic part of the trio’s functioning. His name? Well, no one knew his true, full name, but most people simply referred to him as ‘Levi’.

‘So, what was this Levi like?’ you may ask. Well, for starters, he was of a relatively diminutive stature. He possessed a thin bodily build which, due to the agility it offered, earned him recognition as one of the top soldiers in the army. His thick black hair was maintained in a hairstyle describable as a bowl cut variation—basically, he had a bowl cut but, at the same time, he kept the hair on the back of his head and near the nape of his neck closely and meticulously trimmed. He had the odd habit of wearing eyeliner—something which some attributed to a rumour which told of an encounter in which he was told to try and make him seem less visually boring—and was never seen without his oft-criticised cravat.

As for his personality, it can be said that he wasn’t the most charming person. He often cracked jokes which got taken as facts or insults. His reputation throughout the army was that of both a fantastic fighter and a lousy socialiser. All in all, he was generally not the type of guy who people would flock to for advice or chitchat.

It should and shall be noted, however, that Levi had people he deemed to be friends. There was Petra—a member on his team with whom he seemed to enjoy spending time with—and the rest of his team. Then, there was former United Lands Army commander Erwin Smith—the man with whom Levi had once had a not-so-brief romantic relationship—though he went missing shortly after Levi’s second special forces mission and was later declared dead (despite the lack of a body to prove it). And, curiously enough, there was Hanji Zoë—survivor of the then-recent TG1 Massacre and the force behind his then-current solo recovery mission.


	4. First Impressions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...damn this got way longer than intended...

Levi was one of if not the best soldier in the United Lands Army. He was a highly praised sharpshooter and a master of hand-to-hand combat. He knew what he was doing and did what needed to be done. That said, however, there was one thing that Levi was not—a people person. And, most definitely Levi was not a babysitter.

That was the logic endlessly replaying itself in Levi’s head as he steered his trusted all-terrain motorbike off the shitty dirt road that wound its way to the no-longer-existent Shiganshina testing facility. It was the voice looping eternally in the forefront of his mind.

Of course, Levi knew it was necessary. He understood its purpose. He knew it was to assure that anyone who knew of the TITAN was either dead or accounted for by the military. Still, he regretted that he had to be the one chosen to find any stray volunteers. After all, why him? Why send of the guy they know to be the exact opposite of Mister Charisma and expect him to be able to put up with a maximum of four teenagers?

 _Prrsh_. He turns the handles and brings the bike to an abrupt, dusty halt about halfway down an overgrown dirt footpath. At one point, if his memory was correct, the path led to outer Shiganshina’s well and communal livestock fields. As he drove down it, however, he saw nothing of the sort. Rather, he merely spotted the decaying foundations of old, destroyed homes here and there. However, he did spot something interesting—a heap of what appeared to be bodies.

Upon discovering this, he dismounted his bike and rested it against an old, crumbling brick wall. He slipped on a pair of black leather gloves and approached the heap with the utmost caution. After all, he had no clue if the people in this heap were actually—

No. Wait… They were breathing. He could see that. They were obviously and unfortunately breathing. And, from the looks of it, there were three of them.

“Fuck,” Levi murmured as he prodded the brown-haired boy on the top of the heap with the steel-tipped toe of his boot. “Looks like I have to take these brats back with me…” he mused aloud prior to giving the topmost teen a firm kick in the side to wake him up.

“Hey. Hey, kid. Wake up, kid. I know you’re still alive so don’t play dead with me. If  you do that I’ll just have to make sure you’re not playing at it any more. Wake up.” He delivered a final kick—one which dislodged the teen from his spot on top—and sighed.

“Ow…” the boy mumbled as he came to. “Was that fucking necessary, Mikasa?”

“Mikasa?” Levi responded confusedly. “Who the fuck is that? Is that the name you give to that shitty hairdo of yours or something? Because I suggest you change that name to better suit your physical appearance. I’d go for something equally as imbecilic—say, for instance, Barney…”

“Wait… You’re not Mikasa…” For a good minute, the boy stared bewilderedly at Levi. He opened his mouth to speak a few times but, each time, he promptly shut it. Eventually, however, he seemed to gather enough of his wits about him to speak up. “So… Who the hell are you?”

“Name’s Levi,” the man responded shortly. He sighed, folded his arms, and rolled his eyes dramatically before continuing. “I’ve been sent by Hanji to pick you and your shitbag friends up and bring you back to make sure no information about the project gets where it’s not supposed to. Got that?”

The boy nods.

“Great. Because I’m a busy person. I’m not your babysitter and I’m not your friend. I’m here for business and I need to get back to my actual business of keeping the United Lands commanders from being complete morons. So, if you could wake up your friends now, that would be appreciated.”

Again, the kid nodded. He wandered over to the now-two-person heap and nudged the pair awake. Then, to Levi’s chagrin, he returned. “I woke them up. Now what do I do, sir?”

“Oh _now_ you start calling me ‘sir’. After I tell you that I’m part of the military. Whatever… Do I need to fucking tell you everything!? Must I force-feed you every little command with a spoon and then wipe the excess shit that your miniscule mind didn’t process up afterwards?” Levi made a rather big to-do of sighing at this point. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, wondered why he was being tortured, and finally pointed to his motorcycle. “There’s an attachment on that thing. Seats up to four people. Not exactly road legal in the big cities but we’re not going to some shitty city, so it doesn’t matter. Just get in that and we’ll get going.”

The boy responded with yet another nod. “Yes sir.”

“Thanks… Um…” Levi paused for a moment and nervously rubbed the back of his neck. As has been previously point out, his strong point was never really talking to people. He was rather good at beating people up and harassing them, but not actually talking to them. “What’s your name, kid?”

“Eren Jaeger.”

“Great. And your friends?”

“Armin and Mikasa.”

“Great. So… You three just get in however the hell you like. I really don’t care. I don’t have helmets for any of you, but I doubt we’ll overturn driving that thing…”

“Yes sir. And, um… Not to be rude or anything… But… You’re the Levi, right? The one that all the trainers and commanders ramble about?”

For a brief moment, Levi couldn’t help but feel a surge of pride. It lasted but a half a minute or so, however, as he promptly deflated this particular swelling of his ego and shrugged the comment off. “Yeah… But those pompous assholes just like to brag about everything and anything they can think of. And… You know what? Just get yourself into the bike extension and we can talk all fucking day while I floor it back to the Karanese base, okay?”

 

* * *

 

Nightfall (as well as a lack of available fuel) forced the group to camp out near an abandoned rural community centre. Now, this wasn’t exactly the place where Levi had intended on stopping—in fact, he’d aimed to go much, much further than the community centre—but he had no other choice and, as Armin mentioned, it was likely that the former users of this particular building left behind some fuel and, if not actual fuel, they may have forgotten to take products that could easily be used to create a fuel substitute.

“Okay,” Levi started the exploration by flicking his own flashlight on and off a few times to make sure it worked. “We’ll go into this disgusting den of shit and look for fuel and whatever the fuck else it is that we need. If you see anything odd, don’t touch it. If you see a dangerous-looking insect, don’t touch it. If you see that the wall is dangerously close to caving in, don’t touch it. Just don’t touch fucking anything, okay? I’d rather not have anyone killed on my watch, got it?”

All three of the teens nodded.

“Great,” Levi began, “Then we’ll get start— Wait… Where’s the blond?”

“You mean Armin?” Mikasa chimed in, raising an inquisitive brow as she did so.

“He’s taking a piss,” Eren casually interjected. “He’ll be back.”

Again, Levi sighed. “That’s fucking great. If he gets poison ivy on his schlong I’m not responsible and I’m definitely not going to fix it”

“Actually, sir… Um… Levi, was it? Eren’s probably the idiot you should worry about when it comes to doing stupid crap like that…”

“Mikasa!” Eren stammered, likely more than a bit mortified by the commentary. “I—”

At this point, Levi was starting to seriously consider knocking the kids out for the duration of the building’s exploration. However, it seemed that the heavens disapproved of that plan, for they sent the blond in to intervene at that exact second. “Sorry about that and… Did Mikasa suggest that Eren would get poison ivy where he shouldn’t to a superior again?”

“She did,” Levi shrugged. “So, are we finished with this stupid argument?”

“Yes,” Eren grumbled.

“Yes,” Mikasa smirked.

“Perfect. So… I have no clue how long it’ll take if we all stick together, so… Mikasa…” Upon hearing her name, the girl glanced towards Levi. And, somehow, he got the feeling that she knew what he was about to say. But, he went ahead and said it anyway. “…You and Armin seem like the more responsible members of this trio. You two team up and look in the east. Eren, you’re with me.”

All three dutifully accepted these arrangements and the investigation of the abandoned building began. Armin and Mikasa departed after Levi provided them with a lockpick and a spare pistol.

Eren and Levi’s expedition started immediately after Armin and Mikasa disappeared from view. It began after Levi armed himself with a pocket knife and his pistol prior to motioning for Eren to follow him. Then, he wandered around the western end of the building. He glanced at it from all sides and took note of every entrance. With the utmost precision and meticulous observation, he considered each of the structure’s vulnerabilities. And, after about seven minutes of this, he casually leaned over and picked up a sizeable rock, which he then haphazardly hurled through the nearest available window. The glass shattered and he, without ever turning to look at his companion, spontaneously spouted forth some strange words of what could possibly pass for wisdom, “Planning’s only half of shit like this. Sometimes, you just have to go for it.”

With this said and his teenage escort thoroughly confused, he charged forward. He scaled the dumpster beneath the broken window with the utmost grace. Once atop this obstacle, he paced to and fro for a moment. He put the sole of his shoe to the wall, considered the amount of traction he’d have and the distance he’d need to travel, and, without further thought, seemed to bound effortlessly up the wall. With a single additional stride, he scaled high enough to catch onto the window ledge. He pulled himself up, crouched to fit within the window’s gap, and pushed away a few stray shards of glass. “Looks decent enough…” he mumbled casually, unconcerned by the fact that he’d just baffled his subordinate escort with his actions. “Is there a door anywhere around here?”

He waited for  response to this question, though he received none. Thus, he tried again. “Hey! Kid! Talking to you, daydreamer. You see a door down there?” he called forth.

Eren responded with a slightly shocked jump prior to looking for an entrance. “Um… Yeah… There’s one about two yards from the window… to the left.”

“Great. Just wait there for a minute,” Levi replied as he leapt from where he was perched on the window sill and onto the top of a broken fridge below. He dropped from the top of this appliance and cast the beam of his flashlight about a bit.

The room was in a state of decent disarray. Only a few patches of wallpaper remained, and all of the patches corresponded with places where nails once held up photos. Most of the floor tiles had been uprooted and were strewn carelessly about. Broken glass bottles and bits of old wood littered the floor. Some blood was smeared on the walls and the meagre remains of a few skeletons were cast aside, piled atop one another in an open floor freezer.

“Figures,” Levi mumbled his thoughts aloud as he wandered towards the door, “Another raid. What else would it be?” He stepped up to the wooden entryway and eyed the lock. Knob lock. Key required…? No, not in this case. At least, not after Levi, using his pocket knife as a makeshift screwdriver, removed the doorknob entirely. He then pushed the door open as if it had already been open and called to his escort, “Okay, c’mon.”

Eren nodded and obeyed orders, quickly jogging to catch up with the odd guide. As he did so, unbeknownst to him, said guide was busy watching him.

“Hey, kid—?” Levi began to comment once Eren stopped alongside him.

“You could just call me ‘Eren’, you know. I mean… It is my name…”

“—Yeah, whatever, kid. I’ll start doing that when I feel like it.”

Eren sighed and folded his arms in response to this. “Okay then. I guess I can’t make you do damn near anything… So, sir, did you have a question?”

Levi shrugged and inattentively watched a nearby spider as it spun a lopsided web. “I did,” he mumbled, never once taking his eyes away from the insect to look at the teen he was addressing, “I was just going to say you look like you’ve got a bit of a flat tire… If you know what I mean…” At this point, he finally pulled his gaze away from the wildly flailing arachnid and opted, instead, to boredly stare at the mostly-obscured moon as he muttered quietly to himself, “You probably don’t…”

“Huh?”

The teen’s response elicited from the elder of the pair a sullen sigh. However, not wanting to waste any more time on the topic, he promptly explained himself. “You’ve got a flat tire, kid. Like when a car has a flat tire, you know? They move weird. In other words, your walk’s a little off. Get it now, kid?”

“Oh,” Eren replied with what seemed to be reasonable recognition. “You could have just said that…” As he spoke, he lifted his left pants leg to reveal a column of stainless steel which ended roughly an inch below his knee. Without missing a beat, he added, “I don’t exactly know the details of the entire thing, so you’d have to ask Armin. All I know is I ended up dropping my foot on some sort of nasty explosive.”

“Hm. And you still stuck with this shit? Well… obviously…” At this point, the flashlight flickered—once… twice… thrice… And, then, it seemed to die. Levi, however, was determined to get the most out of the overpriced batteries within the illuminatory device. Thus, he smacked it against the wall a few times, stopping only after it flickered back to life. At the same time, he continued, “…You’re not half bad, then, kid. Probably doesn’t make any difference that I say that now. You probably already think I’m an ass.”

“Not really, sir,” Eren countered. “And aren’t we here looking for fuel?”

“Wha—?” Levi started a response, though he quickly discarded the dialogue. “Yeah… You have a point… k—” he cut himself off, only to respond, instead, with, “It’s Eren, right?”

The teen nodded.

The escorter let slip a brief smile, though it lasted no longer than a half a second. “Okay then. We’ll get moving. Keep close and don’t wander off. If you see anything of interest tell me. If you see anyone who isn’t in our group, don’t hesitate to shoot them. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [muffled _can you feel the love tonight_ playing in the distance]  
>  [muffled sound of radio being smashed]  
> [muffled sounds of attempted humour]


	5. Karanese

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What? No! I'm not trying to cram in as much writing as I can before I have to go back to school! Ha! What're you talking about????

After three hours of searching, the group reconvened. Three gallons of fuel were pooled into the motorcycle’s tank and tents were pitched. (Levi didn’t exactly approve of sleeping in a run-down community building.) The trio had their own tent, and Levi had his. For about six hours, they rested. Then, without any prior warning, Levi made his morning rounds—or, rather, in this case, his singular round.

“Rise and shine, kids, because we’re jumping this shithole,” Levi greeted the trio with his usual brand of odd humour. He removed their tunnel tent’s detachable entryway and—just to make sure that everyone was actually wake—revved up the motorcycle a few times. He then went through the bike’s attached panniers. After a good deal of searching, he found what he was searching for—four cans of meat. More specifically—four cans of vienna sausage.

Once he had located these, he sat down on his bike and opened each can. He balanced the opened containers on the left-hand pannier. “Breakfast’s ready!” he called out as he usually did to his squad back home—to Erd, Petra, Auruo, and Günter. At the same time, he wondered how they were doing. Auruo was probably trying to (and failing) to impress Petra, he figured. And who knew what Erd and Günter could be doing. Hell, who wanted to know? He snickered at this thought as he casually ate half of the can’s contents in one bite. (After all, time was of the essence. He wanted to get back as soon as possible and Hanji needed him back as soon as possible.)

“Hm…” He glanced at the trio’s tent and, after noting that none of them had even emerged, let forth a disgruntled sigh. With a few quick bites, he downed the rest of his makeshift breakfast prior to wandering towards the shelter. He figured that he had already tried the ‘nice’ approach to waking the teens and, thus, he jumped straight to his last resort. He pulled from the insulated right-hand pannier a jug of fairly cold water.This water was then poured into his empty can and, from the can, was promptly thrown into the tent—onto the sleeping teens.

“Fucking hell!” Eren yelped as soon as the first drop of water hit him. (Not surprisingly, this exclamation was sufficiently loud enough to awake the other two.)

“Perfect,” Levi grumbled. “You’re all awake. Breakfast is on the bike. Grab a can, eat it fast, and get ready to leave.”

“And what about the tent?” Mikasa inquired as she casually wrapped the red scarf she’d been using as a pillow around her neck. (When Levi thought about it, it was actually a smart idea. The scarf was thoroughly drenched from his wake-up call and it was fairly hot outside. He took note of this idea for later use.)

“I’ll take it down. You all eat,” the eldest of the group of four responded quickly.

Of course, as Levi expected, he didn’t have to say much else. The teens were eagerly fleeing the scene of the water-soaked tent before he could so much as blink. And, to be honest, he couldn't blame them. He never liked taking down tents…

He sighed, uprooted the six stakes which grounded the shelter, and collapsed the three supports. Once the tent had caved in, he neatly folded the fabric and stored it in its original, resealable package. Afterwards, he gathered the tent’s supports and stakes. All of these were then stored in a beaten-up tote bag and crammed back into a meticulously organised pannier. As he did this, he casually listened in on the teenagers’ conversation. (Now, he might claim to never do such things. And, according to him, he never once eavesdropped. But, those are rather poor lies.) He heard nothing of particular interest, however, and, once finished with the tent’s packing, decided to let the teens eat without (possibly) feeling as if he was breathing down their necks.

He wandered about and ended up leaning against a large oak tree located approximately twenty yards from the group. There, he contemplated several odd issues. He wondered about the big things—life, his purpose, death, and whether or not he’d be around when the war ended—and he also pondered the finer things—what the weather would be like, if needed his travel cloak for the ride home, or how Petra’s idiotic chihuahua was doing. (What was that imbecilic canine’s name, anyhow? Scottie or something like that, he thought… Or maybe it was closer to Jack…?)

With an unemotional sigh—one of those sighs that occurs when one is neither upset nor annoyed, merely lost in thought—he glanced towards the sky. He watched as a forebodingly dark cloud as it rolled in front of the sun and, with this occurrence noted, he looked back toward the group. They had finished at some point during his thoughtful trance, he realised, for they were no longer eating. Thus, he took the opportunity. He reproached the trio. “You all ready to go?” asked he.

“Yeah,” the three said in unison.

“Great. Get in the sidecar and we’ll get going.”

The teens all obeyed the command. They quickly settled into their former positions. Armin and Eren sat in the two frontmost seats; Mikasa sat in the back.

Levi, meanwhile, made note of this consistency as he picked up the leftover cans. He disposed of these empty containers within the moderately sized saddle bag mounted atop the rear wheel guard of his bike. Then, without any further, unnecessary delay, he mounted the vehicle.

He turned the key and the engine started up as it always did—with the same familiar purr which was so accustomed and partial to—and the vehicle took off down the beaten-down back roads.

 

* * *

 

After roughly five hours of near-constant travelling—of stopping only for the occasional bathroom break—the group finally pulled up to the heavily fortified, walled city of Karanese. (Cities, it should be noted, were never walled before the war. After the first, partial fall of Shiganshina, however, many cities—especially susceptible ones such as Karanese—began building walls. In fact, Shiganshina’s testing site had been in the process of building their own wall when it was attacked and ultimately destroyed.) With a slightly faltering sputtering noise, the bike came to a halt and Levi dismounted the vehicle. He approached one of the five ground-based guards.

“Identification, sir,” the guard’s prompt was accompanied by the intentionally blatant drawing of a loaded pistol.

“Surely,” he muttered as he reached into his jacket’s inner hacking pocket, “You don’t need my identification.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but it’s standard procedure,” the gateman admitted.

“Of course,” sighed Levi. With a flourishing of his wrist, he produced from the aforementioned pocket a worn out, black leather wallet. He flipped this wallet open, revealing to the gateman his photo identification. “Well, there it is. You satisfied that I’m Levi now?”

“Yes sir. We’ll open the gate immediately.” With this said, the gateman took a few steps back before signalling to the guards based on top of the wall. This signal—a simple thumbs-up—resulted in the rapid raising of the city’s heavy metal entrance gate. Once it was raised enough for Levi’s bike to pass beneath it, the gateman spoke a final time, “Have a pleasant day, sir.”

“Hm. Have a decent one,” Levi responded with a wave of his hand. (He was fully aware of the fact that the joke would have likely been and was misinterpreted as a sincerely snide comment. However, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. After all, he didn’t get many chances to make what he deemed to be decent jokes.)

He proceeded past the gate and, as he rounded the of five turns which would lead him to headquarters, he glanced at the side car. He noted that all three members of the trio were fast asleep, though he did nothing to “fix” this. It wasn’t a situation that needed to be fixed, after all. They were perfectly fine as they were.

He sighed, redirected his attentions to the road, and took the second turn. This turning trend continued until he pulled into a stuffy old parking garage. Taking his usual spot, he parked directly beside the first floor entry. Then, he casually called to the trio he’d brought back, “Wake up again. You guys need to get checked back in and I need to make sure Hanji knows you’re here.”

“Hm?” Eren groaned, stretching his arms above his head as he let forth an almost theatrical yawn. “What was that?”

“I said…” Levi, at this point, carefully caught Eren’s wrists, “Wake up.” With what he intended as a good-natured smirk, he released his grip and nodded his head towards the locked metal door which barred the group from entering. “Get on up and come in through the door.” Once again, he pulled from his pocket a battered, black wallet. This time, however, he produced from it a keycard which he swiftly registered in its specified slot on the door. A green light above the portal lit momentarily, and Levi quickly opened it.

“Go on in, then. You’re wasting air conditioning. And we can barely afford that, anyhow…”

The teens dutifully nodded and filed into the building.

Levi followed them, slamming the door shut after he entered to make sure it was fully and securely locked. “I’ll get the you three’s status sorted out later. You’re currently listed as missing, but, seeing as I found you, that’s obviously inaccurate. Seeing Hanji’s more important than fixing a few papers, though, so…” his voice trailed off and he led the still-groggy group into a manned elevator.

“Sixth floor,” prompted Levi.

The man operating the lift nodded and pushed the appropriate buttons. This prompted the machine to lurch into life and, after a half a minute or so, it stopped. The plain, wooden doors opened to a hallway of offices—rooms occupied by singular, powerful entities such as Levi’s fellow squad leaders and corps commanders.

Levi ignored many of these doors, however. He passed them by without second thought—without any concern for who may have been working in the room behind the wooden dividers—and, instead, he focused on one in particular. He focused on the one at the far end of the hallway—the door which, according to its faux bronze plaque, led to the office of Hanji Zoe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know I really focused on Levi in this chapter. Sorry. I was just too into tinkering with him...


	6. Kirschtein

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahaha i literally did not beta this. please notify me of typos because i'm sure there're a few and i'm out of ideas for this fic already so i'm reluctantly kicking myself back to realistic aus for a bit. sorry. but i promise that this story will not be abandoned. i like its premise far too much.

At this point, Eren had no idea what was happening. He knew he had witnessed some form of a massacre and that he’d been rescued by an older military member. He knew he’d met with Hanji Zoe once more. He knew this meeting pertained to his knowledge of the event—which was, quite honestly, little-to-none. He knew that he was asked questions and extensively interrogated; but, he didn’t recall any specifics. He knew that, as he mulled over these established points, he lay in his dormitory’s upper bunk, staring blankly at the ceiling.

No… He couldn’t mull over these trivialities all day. There was work to be done, wasn’t there? Of course there was! Having come to the aforementioned conclusion, Eren leaned over the left-hand guardrail so as to position himself within the visual range of his friend and lower bunk occupant, Armin Arlert.

Naturally, this action drew a response from the blond in the bunk below. “You’ve been awfully quiet lately,” he mused. “Have you thinking about something?” His query is accompanied by a friendly smile and a raised brow.

“Yeah… Not really about much, though. More about what’s happened in the past few— What’s it been? Days? Hours? I don’t fucking know any more… What’ve you been doing?” Eren responded sociably.

“Nothing much…” Armin let forth a half-hearted sigh at this point and redirected his gaze to the creaky wooden boards which supported the mattress above him. “Wondering why I’m here, I suppose…”

Eren retorted with a disappointed groan. “Not this shit again, Armin. I thought you figured out that you’re one of the most useful person on the team.”

“I wouldn’t say most useful,” the blond shrugged, “But I’m not talking about that. I mean… What makes us so damn important that they sent out the United Lands’ best soldier to fetch us?”

“I—” Here, Eren hesitated. He bit his lip and lowered his gaze. “I honestly don’t know… Unless it has to do with the TITAN thing…”

“Well, Annie and Ymir both know about whatever the hell you’d call it and they didn’t go after them…” countered Armin.

“Maybe they wanted Mikasa?” Eren shrugged, as if to confirm his faulty logic. “I mean, she graduated top of the class…”

“Yes, but wouldn’t they have just taken her and left us?”

Eren opened his mouth to comment, though this process was interrupted by the unexpected intrusion of the third and final inhabitant of their three-person berth. Now, it should be noted that Eren was not particularly fond of this young man—the one with the bottle blonde hair atop his head yet with natural brunette on the sides. His name, however, was already etched in Eren’s mind at this point—and his name was Jean Kirschtein.

“Jean!” Armin enthusiastically greeted the interruption.

“Jean…” Eren, at the same time, denounced it. He let forth a sigh of defeat and folded his arms across his chest. At the same time, he avoided the gaze of the teen to whom he directed his silent derision. “What, did you just get back from the salon or something?”

“Actually, I just got back from the mess hall,” responded a disinterested Jean. “I came here to talk to Armin, but I forgot that they’d saved your sorry ass in the process of saving his more useful ass.”

“Oh! So now we’re taking cheap shots at one another?” chided Eren.

Jean scoffed at this notion and rolled his eyes. “No, but, if that’s what you want to call it, then I guess you can go on ahead and call it that.”

“Whatever,” Eren grumbled, “I was just leaving, anyhow.” He turned about briskly and, after shooting a final disapproving glance at his roommate, he grabbed his jacket and began to depart. As he stepped out the door and into the hallway leading to his dorm (as well as the other shared berths of varying sizes), he spoke—more to Armin than to Jean, though the slight air of childish disdain hinted at the fact that his words were at least partially directed towards his rival. “I’m going to find Mikasa,” he said prior to slamming the door shut.

 

* * *

 

“It’s about Jean again, isn’t it?” Mikasa spoke to Eren without ever turning to face him or needing any indication of his presence. Rather, she seemed to just have a sixth sense—an Eren detector of sorts—which alerted her to the heavy approaching footsteps of her irritated adoptive brother. “Honestly, Eren, I don’t get why you hate him so much…”

“Um, because he’s a fucking asshole?” Eren retorted as he vaulted over the mostly-decorative wooden fence which surrounded the stables and approached the log bench his friend was sitting on. “That’s fucking why.”

Mikasa shrugged and casually slid down to give Eren space to sit alongside her.

Eren, however, ignored the offer. He merely stormed onwards, until he was in front of his adoptive sibling, and began pacing back and forth like a troubled banker. “I just don’t understand it, Mikasa. Everyone seems to fucking love that guy and I can’t stand him. Like, just looking at his stupid horse face makes me want to puke. And we’re not talking the normal ‘oh I feel kind of sick’ puke, you know. We’re talking the huge ‘oh my god this is hell’ projectile vomit type.”

Again, Mikasa shrugged. She played down the rejected seating arrangements and casually tugged her beloved red scarf up a bit, so that the top of it rested just below her nose. Then, she responded. “You’re acting like a little kid, Eren,” she restated the fact which she had previously said at least a hundred times, “Jean’s not that bad of a guy. And Armin seems to like him, so…”

“Well, Armin likes that stupid haircut of his, too. So don’t go telling me about how smart he is because smarts does not equate to common sense!” Eren’s response was accompanied by enraged, frenzied, and only partially coherent gestures.

Mikasa’s reply, however, was as calm and collected as they tended to be. “And you like your haircut, which is equally as idiotic,” she murmured.

“Mikasa!” yelled an indignant Jaeger.

“What? Oh. I’m sorry. Did that ruffle your feathers or something?” the girl seemed to be paying less and less attention to her companion’s idiotic ramblings with each passing second. In fact, at this point, she lit a cigarette and began to dismissively indulge in its cheap glory.

“Mikasa,” Eren pouted, as if he were ignorantly unaware of the fact that Mikasa was no longer putting up with his stupidity. (Of course, having known her for a large chunk of his life, such acts had become just that—they were acts. Mikasa could see right through them and, though Eren was well aware of this, he often persisted with them despite their pointlessness.)

“Hm?” the girl responded by breathing forth a plume of cigarette smoke from her nostrils. “I’m sorry, what was that? I stopped listening to you.”

Eren sighed and recognized that he had no way of possibly winning or even getting this argument off the ground. He raised his hands in a quick sign of defeat and returned to his room—albeit with a great deal of reluctance.


End file.
